1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stereoscopic endoscope device, and in particular, to a stereoscopic endoscope device that captures a parallax image using an imaging unit, which is provided in a distal portion of an insertion unit inserted into the body cavity, so that a stereoscopic image (3D image) of a subject body part in the body cavity can be displayed.
2. Description of the Related Art
A stereoscopic endoscope device includes a pair of left and right imaging units (imaging means) including an imaging optical system and a solid state imaging element, which are provided in a distal portion of an insertion unit of the endoscope device inserted into the body cavity. A subject body part is imaged by the imaging units, and left and right parallax images are obtained as a stereoscopic image (3D image) for stereoscopic viewing. In addition, the 3D image is 3D displayed by a 3D display device such that a right-eye image is observed by the right eye of the observer and a left-eye image is observed by the left eye of the observer. As a result, the subject body part is observed stereoscopically.
In the stereoscopic endoscope device, neither the situation of a portion near the subject body part nor the position of the treatment instrument can be checked only by the observation of the subject body part based on the 3D image. For this reason, JP2003-334160A (JP-H15-334160A) discloses that not only an imaging unit for capturing a 3D image (referred to as a 3D imaging unit herein) but also an imaging unit for capturing a wide-angle 2D image for plan view (referred to as a 2D imaging unit herein) is provided.
In addition, JP2003-334160A (JP-H15-334160A) and JP2001-66513A (JP-H13-66513A) disclose that the 3D imaging unit has a zoom function.